The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1887-06-09
CARE or HORSES e E
The Complicated and Peculiar stru'
of the Equine Hoof.

The Complicated and PECULIAR Structure
Of the Equine Hoof.
mo foot, no horse" This old adage
ID trite, but true. With defective feet
a horse is useless, a misery and a re-
proach to its owner. Naturally there
are no lame horses. The hoof trained
by long usage to contact with the
ground-soft and h~ard-sand, clay or
rock, becomes tough, but yielding,
wears but little, and rapidly repairs the
waste by wear. A wild horse is never
shod, and it might then be reasoned
that shooting is the cause of the defects
in the feet of our domestic animals.
And one would be not far from the
truth were he to hazard this deduction
from the premises.
The horses hoof consists of horn,
which is identical in composition with
skin and hair. Horn is simply a solid
mass of hair compacted into a fbrous
substance, or a hard, tough, insensible
skin. 1t is identical in composition
also with the nails and claws of other
animals, and all these are merely pro-
longations of the skin tissue, grown for
protection of the sensitive tissue under
it, and with which it is connected by a
delicate, nervous and vascular nne
tive tissue. The horn of a hoof pro-
ceeds from the skin of the leg at the
coronet, and the horn matter is con-
nected directly with the outer skin or
epidermis. Under the horn are found
the lamin@, or leaves of the foot, which
are extremely sensitive, and are con-
nected with the intricate system of
nerves, circulatory vessels, tendons
and tissues of the foot, and
these in turn are attached to
the bones, three in number, upon
which the foot is built up. These three
bones r the lower end of the coronet
bone, which bears the weight of the
shank of the lower limb; the coffin or
pedal bone, and the n%avicular or scss-
mold bone. which is much like a pulley,
and is so in fact, for the flexor tendon
of the foot plays owe it. These bones
are connected with an elastic cushion,
a part of the frog. This elastic frog is
connected with a spongy or cellular,
horny cushion which grows in the GEN.
ter of the sole, and projects backward
between the heels. This frog is the
support of the center of the foot, and
when it receives pressure from the
weight thrown upon the leg it acts
upon the elastic frog, which distributes
the pressure sidewise as well as up
ward, and expands the hinder part of
the hoof, which is a mass of tendons
and cartilages, and intended to di-
vert the shocks which would otherwise
come directly upon the bones of the
foot by their side motion.
The bones and elastic framework of
the foot are covered by a thick net
work, with hollow spaces and canals
for the passage of nerves and blood
vessels. This network is firmly at
tached to the bones and elastic springs
and cushions of the foot, and to the
inner wall of the horny hoof, including
the sole. The outer attachment con-
sists of the lamine, the seat of the
disease known as laminitis. These
consist of thin leaves or plates, 500 or
600 in number, and having in
all from 10000 to $4,000 minute
secondary leaves. These lamine are
interleaved with an equal number of
primary and secondary horny lamin@,
OF plates, which interlock with the
vascular and sensitive lamine, and
SO form a most amazing extent of con-
Meeting surface by which the horny
tissue is secreted and repaired. A
large amount of moisture is also Sc
creted by these lamine and carried by
horny attachments through small tubes
OF pores to the outer part of the hoof,
and this water serves to keep the horn
soft, elastic and tough. When this Sc
creting connective tissue is diseased
and becomes unable to perform its nat
ural Office the material for the new
growth of horn and the moisture are
no longer supplied, the hoof becomes
contracted, hard, dry and brittle. The
tightly inclosed and highly sensitive
interior parts of the foot also become
extremely painful because of the pres
sure of the shrunken and unyielding
horn, which exerts such a compressive
force upon the denser parts of the foot
as sometimes to rend them apart. This
explains the reason why any disease of
the interior parts of the hoof causes
such intense pain and lameness. And
it most clearly illustrates the truth of
the old adage, for a diseased foot is
tantamount to no foot at all.
Considering this complicated and pc
culiar structure of the horses foot, it
is apparent that it needs the
closest supervision and the most care
full protection from harm. Let us now
follow a horse in its perfect natural
condition into the hands of a careless
and ignorant driver.
The animal is introduced into a
stable, the floor of which is saturated
with wet manure, or consists of hard,
unyielding, slippery. plank. He is
taken to work and put on hard, rough,
stony roads which jar and strike the
foot as with the blows of a hammer.
The horse is urged to his utmost speed
as he descends a hill by the force of the
descending vehicle behind him and the
whip of his thoughtless driver. Every
step brings the weight of the fore.
quarters, doubled by the velocity and
the descending force, upon the fore
feet. These blows strike most pain.
fully upon the sensitive connections
which support the interior parts of the
foot j. their balance, in the center of the
firm outer crust of the hoof. The elias.
tic cushion is unable to divert the
whole of the force and jar of the violent
impact, and the bones of the foot re-
ccive the blows. The very sensitive
coverings of the bones are bruised
and become infiamed, and the
horse is unable to move freely, in
a word, he is lame. The animal
is taken to the blacksmith, who cuts
down the hoof walls, pares away the
frog, lowers the bars, aNd disturbs the